Colonial Psycho-Social Trauma: Rereading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
In History, Trauma, and Healing in Postcolonial Narratives: Reconstructing Identities, Ogaga
Ifowodo suggests reading ―postcolonial history, as the history of trauma‖ because of ―the
arguably more catastrophic injury to the psyche of the colonized‖ (2). This paper will delineate
the psychic trauma of the colonized as an initial step for the socio-cultural trauma of the
colonized community.
In Chinua Achebe’s classic, in the wake of the ―shattering historical trauma‖ of colonialism,
―things literally and metaphorically fall apart‖ (Ifowodo xiii). The Igbo cultural community,
symbolized in Umoufia, loses the cultural traditional trends which sustained it. Umoufia is run
by Okonkwo whose ―fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan‖ (Achebe 3) and whose
individualistic vigor symbolizes the vigor of Umoufia.
Arriving in Umoufia, colonization shatters Okonkwo’s god-like position as the head of a
culturally and economically self-sufficient community. Okonkwo’s exile to his maternal land is
the onset of the aggravation of socio-cultural trauma to his community. First, by being exiled to
the maternal land, he is de-masculinized and set in the colonizer/ colonized binary of masculine/
feminine. Second, he undergoes postcolonial marginality. If Foucauldian Marginality signifies
opposition to a specific center, postcolonial marginality implies ―the limitations of a subject’s
access to power‖ (Ashcroft et al. 135). Finally, Okonkwo’s domination over his community is
lost and henceforth the socio-cultural cohesion.
Socio-cultural trauma to Igbo people commences when, in Obierika’s words, the white man who
―does not speak our tongue‖ and who does not ―understand our custom about land‖ makes the
Igbo man believe that ―our customs are bad‖ (Achebe 99). Such trauma happens because the
colonizer ―has won our brothers and our clan can no longer act like one‖ (ibid). That is because
the colonized interiorized colonial imposed ambivalences (Fanon 120- 135).
Keywords: marginal, psychic trauma, socio-cultural trauma, Igbo
Theoretical Background
Since Geoffrey Hartman’s seminal work, ―On Traumatic Knowledge and Literary Studies‖
(1995) which presented ―a change of perspective‖ not only at the level of theory but also ―of
exegesis in the service of insights about human functioning‖ (544) trauma theory has been
increasingly employed as a theoretical framework for literary practice.
Genealogically speaking, trauma theory has its roots in Freudian Psychoanalysis. Leys
states that Freud’s psychoanalysis is unquestionably the foundation of trauma theory, despite the
point that researchers in the field of trauma studies may prefer to assume that Freud’s work ―has
been completely superseded‖ (Trauma 11). And Luckhurst suggests that the ongoing
marginalization of Freud’s theories may cause the decline of trauma theory (211).
Freud’s Studies on Hysteria (1895) delineates trauma as painful experiences that have not
been fully integrated into the personality but have been repressed in the unconscious of the
individual to resurface later in the form of disturbing symptoms. Henceforth, psychoanalytically
speaking, trauma can be defined as the painful remembering of an experience. The crucial point
is that, the experience may not necessarily be painful but its remembering is necessarily painful
In essence, it is the act of remembering as deferred action that constitutes trauma. In Freudian
definition, the temporality of trauma is emphasized and that is exactly the reason, Freud’s term
Nachträglichkeit (belatedness) has become a central concept in trauma theory.
Trauma triumphs on two contradictory concepts; belatedness and temporality. Trauma is
a repressed experience in the unconscious which keeps returning to the conscious yet remains
inaccessible to it. Three elements seem to be the pillars of such definition; repression, returning
and inaccessibility which all reside on the basic inherent paradox of trauma ; temporality and
belatedness. Cathy Caruth states that ―trauma is not experienced as it occurs, [but] is fully
evident only in connection with another place, and in another time‖ (―Introduction‖ 7) and that
―the most direct seeing of a violent event may occur as an absolute inability to know it; that
immediacy, paradoxically, may take the form of belatedness‖ (Unclaimed Experience 91–92).
Geoffrey Hartman also posits that trauma is ―composed of two contradictory elements, [ … ] as
close to nescience as to knowledge‖ (537).
Repression and inaccessibility of trauma can be resolved through narrative which is
according to Judith Herman a powerful therapeutic tool which aids the integration of the
traumatic experience and facilitates recovery (Trauma and Recovery 1994). Narrativization of
trauma is necessary and possible, as an ―organized, detailed, verbal account, oriented in time and
historical content‖ (Herman 177). Narrativization of traumatic experience helps ―to speak of the
unspeakable‖ (Herman 179), it gives voice to an ―impossible saying‖ (―Introduction‖ 9).
Herman’s formulation of trauma has several strong points which make it apt for analyses
of processes of postcolonial literary production and reception. It allows psychological, cultural
and historical reading of trauma simultaneous with an openness to narrativization of trauma.
Ruth Leys definition supports Herman’s theories. Leys cites the official definition of
trauma as given in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed. DSM-III,
1980) as an event that involves a ―recognizable stressor that would evoke significant symptoms
of distress in almost everyone‖ (Guilt 94). Trauma, henceforth, involves, a traumatic event with
aftermath traumatic repercussions in the post-traumatic stage. Trauma thus denotes the
recurrence or of the traumatic event in memory, dreams, narrative and the recurrence of other
symptoms known under the term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Since its emergence in
1980, PTSD expanded to include not only those involved directly with the traumatic experience
but also secondary victims such as witnesses, bystanders at the event, relatives, therapists and
friends of victims.
Trauma Narrativization in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
The increasing appeal of trauma theory is evident through the new emerging fields of trauma
study. Postcolonial critical and literary theories, a rapidly expanding and extremely diversified
area of study, are one of the fields which responded to trauma studies. The immense impact of
trauma in this field is evident through the emergence of a new literary genre, ―postcolonial
trauma novel‖ construed in the wake of trauma novel.
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart can be read anew as the trauma narrative. Achebe
narrativizes the traumatic experience of colonization to recuperate and heal the injured collective
unconscious of the colonized people. As the ―the inaugural figure in West African writing‖
(Morrison 162), his novels displace the taken-for-granted negative representations of Africans
and Africanism in colonial texts and promote African self-confidence by building up the
dignified African identity to heal the colonized collective trauma.
Receiving Western education, Achebe gradually grasped the reductionist view of
colonial literature whereby Africans are stereotyped as primitive, mysterious, wild, exotic
others and their land as dark land. Such reductionist view made Achebe ―try and look at this
from inside‖; that is to write back to colonial literature to overturn such stereotyping by
bringing to life the complex dynamics of an African society which is in possession of religion,
culture, democratic government, monetary system, artistic traditions . . . in precolonial novels
(Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God) and following the destiny of such societies through the
transitional novel (No Longer at Ease) and the urban novels (Anthills of the Savannah and A
Man of the People). Achebe himself declares his intention of following the history and destiny
of three generations in his trilogy:
The books are in fact the story of the country of my birth, Ogidi, in eastern Nigeria.
In the first [TFA], I tell of the village traditions and the hopes and fears of all the
inhabitants at the time when the first contacts with Europeans are taking place. In
the second book [NLE], which is in fact the third of the trilogy, the story is about
my generation. In the missing book [AG] the story will be about my father's
generation, those who were Christianized. (Lindfors, Conversations 8)
Subverting colonial stereotyping also continues through creating complex characters that in
voice and behavior are individualistic unlike flat voiceless speechless Africans of colonial works.
In this regard, historical events have entered Achebe's narratives: like the massacre of the
community of Aharia, by British forces, which was provoked when on November 16, 1905 a
white man riding his bicycle was killed by the natives. This incident provided the historical
model for the massacre of the village of Abame referred to in Things Fall Apart.
Discursive Chasm the Root of Psychic and Socio-Cultural Trauma
Regarding the colonized individual living in contact culture colonial ―authoritative discourse‖
which comes to individual from outside his consciousness interacts with traditional-cultural
―internally persuasive discourse‖ which comes from within individual consciousness. Colonial
authoritative discourse struggles to exert an integral monologic paradigm on the individuals
while the traditional-cultural internally persuasive discourse tries to assimilate these totalitarian
paradigms to make them his own authority and ownership.
The discursive shift from pre-colonial to colonial and from colonial to post-colonial and
from post-colonial to neo-colonial era and adaptation to all such eras cause psychic as well as
socio-cultural trauma. The ambivalence, discontinuity and uncertainty that happen as the result
of discursive shift are not without remarked telling on individuals' psyches as they feel living in
an interregnal space in which one discourse is ending and another is emerging. Such historicalcultural chasm, discursive uncertainty and lack of a remarkable discourse in which individuals
can lodge lead to psychic trauma, the manifestation of which is different in different individuals;
Okonkwo commits suicide, Obi Okonkwo morally corrupts…
Colonial and Ibo discourses each have a level of autonomy that bars other discursive
perspectives. Okonkwo, as the head of a colonized tribe, experience a historical moment of
transition from pre-colonial to colonial in which the two discourses cannot be reconciled within
him. The problem is that he is entangled in an a-discursive space which cannot signify his
existence and his situation.
In Things Fall Apart, Achebe depicts ―the picture of an Igbo society that was highly
organized and deeply religious, a society which valued bravery, hard work, material wealth as
well as eloquence and dignity–a society that possessed an enviable culture‖ (Ngara 111). When
Okonkwo turns back from his seven-year exile, he finds Christian messengers in his land. Unable
to accommodate to new colonial discourse he embarks on burning down the Christian church
because of which he and five other elders are detained. His resistance to new colonial hegemonic
discourse also manifests itself when he decapitates the head messenger of the district
commissioner. Realizing that most Umuofians now slant toward colonial discourse, hence
unwilling to go to war, and afraid of the commissioner’s reprisal, Okonkwo commits suicide.
His act of suicide is the result of discursive chasm; Ibo traditional cultural discourse is on
the verge of termination and the colonial one has not yet settled down. Obierka, Okonkwo’s best
friend, complained to the district commissioner: ―that man (Okonkwo) was one of the greatest
men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself and now he will be buried like a dog‖ (Achebe,
TFA 147). Within the former discourse Okonkwo was great, with the new one he is worthless.
Okonkwo's suicide is the dramatization of his identity crisis at the verge of ambivalence caused
by discursive chasm.
Crisis in individuals’ psyche, though has always existed, manifests itself upon cultural
clash at the historical moment of colonization. At this very moment, dissidents (e.g. Ezeulu's
opponents) and marginalized groups such as osus, outcasts, and the mothers of twins merely find
a relief outside traditional structures.
Psychic crisis can be manifested according to Erikson in ―contradictory self images or
aspirations, roles or opportunities‖ (46). Psychic crisis is also the result of internalizing racial
inferiority complex or the colonial assumption that the indigenous race is the inferior race. The
point makes individuals absorb white value system and ideology with the end result of selfalienation which leads to psychic crisis. The colonized comes to be ―the subject of cultural
oppression/racism in which one is incessantly fed with cultural values and understandings which
are hostile, devaluating of oneself and one’s culture‖ (Hook 481). Henceforth, he comes to
imitate the white colonizer, puts on (Fanonian) white mask and represses the fact that he is black;
the fact that keeps returning to the conscious to cause (Post-Traumatic Stress) Disorder and
ambivalence.
Altering Cultural Elements
Customs, social rituals and traditions are crucial aspects of any ethic culture and reveal the core
value system of a society. The settlement of colonization disentangled the core cultural values of
Ibo community. The pillars of Ibo culture were Ibo religion and traditional ceremonies which
banded Umoufian people together and made them act like one unified family.
Unlike other religions which demand individual performances, Ibo traditional religion
required communal performances, which were usually done in the very local shrines. Colonizers
brought with them their own religion, caused the conversion of Umoufians to Christianity and
affected the development of a cultural gap: ―Traditional religion is essentially local-tied to this
local shrine, this village festival, this village taboo. A man who left his village for Lagos was
almost bound to cease to practice his inherited religion‖ (Isichei cited Hogan 8). Traditions
stopped being practiced and cultural symbols which were assumed to pass cultural heritage
began to lose their dignified stature.
In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe depicts a traditional society on the verge of its
disintegration as cultural values, traditions and customs are disrespected. According to the ageold traditional Ibo belief the disrespect of cultural values brings about chastisement for the
practitioner. However, Okoli kills a sacred python and Enoch unmasks an ancestral spirit but
surprisingly enough none of them is faced with dramatic rebuke. The fact that Ibo cultural
traditions will no more be respected is illuminated in Okonkwo's soliloquy:
He [Okonkwo] knew that he had lost his place among the nine masked spirits
who administered justice in the clan. He had lost the chance to lead his
warlike clan against the new religion, which, he was told, had gained ground.
He had lost the years in which he might have taken the highest titles in the
clan. (171)
Changing concrete manifestations of Ibo culture was followed by changing the abstract value
system to the extent that communal economic system was replaced by colonial materialist
capitalist system. The Ibos had an economic system based on which wealth was distributed in a
manner to prevent accumulation of money in the hands of one clansman. Henceforth, every
ambitious man of wealth was required to redistribute his wealth periodically. As a case in point,
in order to take any of the titles of the clan, a man had to give up a portion of his wealth to the
clan. Okoye, in Things Fall Apart, is gathering all his resources in preparation for the ―very
expensive‖ ceremony required to take the Idemili title, the third highest in the land (10).
However, if in pre-colonial era a man was judged according to his own personal values
and achievements, in post-independence era, as the result of the imposition of the poetics of
Western capitalist culture, the man's personal achievements are diminished besides wealth and
position. The traditional principle of ―individual as clan and clan as sole individual‖ (Achebe, AS
68) is replaced by individualism of colonialism by which self, rather than community, comes
first.
Trauma constitutes ―a blow to the basic tissues of social life that damages the bonds
attaching people together and impairs the prevailing sense of communality‖ (Erikson 471).
Colonization was effectuated when the colonized collaborated with colonizers. As Michael
Rothberg’s summation states, traumatic memory in postcolonial terms may involve experiences
of complicity under colonial oppression, and thus, ―attentiveness to complicity marks one
promising path for [such] a differentiated approach‖ (―Decolonizing Trauma Studies‖ 232).
Psychosocial trauma to Igbo people commences when, in Obierika’s words, the white
man who ―does not speak our tongue‖ and who does not ―understand our custom about land‖
makes the Igbo man believe that ―our customs are bad‖ and above all ―our own brothers who
have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad‖ (99). Colonial cultural trauma
happens because, using Obierieka’s words, the colonizer:
has won our brothers and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a
knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart. How do you
think we can fight when our brothers have turned against us? …now he has
won our brothers and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife
on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart‖ (99)
Colonialism exerted its cultural force via altering, replacing or at times ruining the elements of
Ibo culture. People who needed the ties of cultural belonging commenced to absorb the codes of
the white man's culture. Psychic and socio-cultural trauma happened, not at early stages of
colonialism when such codes were either resisted or otherwise not yet established, but at a
certain stage when colonial and indigenous codes came in clash. Things Fall Apart, depicts
characters who are diligently trying to negotiate ways between African traditional cultural values
and Colonial Western modern values. Being unable to settle the conflict between modernism and
traditionalism, the individuals undergo psychic trauma and the whole society socio-cultural
trauma.
Conclusion
This article intended to present a more precise, as well as more comprehensive,
conceptualization of trauma and formulates possible directions in which to expand trauma’s
conceptual framework, in order to respond more adequately to postcolonial ways of
understanding history, memory and trauma. The reconfiguration of trauma theory should
consider the following points:
First and foremost, a postcolonial trauma theory should not follow colonial western
trauma models but should seek to employ trauma models incorporating ethnic templates of
colonize territories for understanding psychic disorders caused by the traumatic event of
colonization. This would help diversification and development of postcolonial theories and
practices which would ―facilitate a democratic colloquium between the antagonistic inheritors of
the colonial aftermath‖ (Leela Gandhi’s call, Postcolonial Theory x). According to the editors of
StiN, the concept of collective trauma in postcolonial trauma theory requires critical questioning
of ―the one-sided, Eurocentric focus‖ of trauma theory (2).
Second, postcolonial trauma theories tend to disregard the sustained oppression of
colonization during postcolonial era. Such ignorance is noted by editors of the StiN project, who
point out that ―the chronic psychic suffering produced by the structural violence of racial,
gender, sexual, class, and other inequities has yet to be fully accounted for‖ and that this
suffering has been ―routinely ignored or dismissed‖ in trauma research (3–4).
Third, the difference between the colonizer and the colonized should not be obscured in
postcolonial trauma theory. LaCapra’s warns against trauma theory’s tendency ―to obscure the
difference between victims of traumatic historical events and others not directly experiencing
them‖ (Writing History ix).
Taking such points into account would contribute to a clearer delineation of the issues
currently at stake in the developing relationship between trauma theory and postcolonial literary
studies. I intended to highlight the areas where further conceptualization is needed for a
―postcolonized‖ trauma theory to aid the debate about the possibilities in such a reconfiguration.
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